The Store Brands World is Coming Together in Chicago

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October 21, 2011

From coast-to-coast and around the globe, store brands have become a powerful weapon in the arsenal of retailers who are competing for sales, profits and shopper loyalty, while appealing to increasingly savvy and ever more frugal consumers. And private label manufacturers are stepping up to the challenge of supplying retailers with traditional products that continue to fulfill consumers’ expectations of quality and value, and also new and innovative products to satisfy consumers’ unmet needs.

Brian Sharoff

On track for its second straight year of double-digit growth, PLMA’s 2011 Private Label Trade Show is the number one destination for private label decision-makers from the nation’s leading retailers and wholesalers, with more than 2,000 exhibit booths featuring food, snacks and beverages, household and kitchen products, general merchandise, and health and beauty care products from more than 35 countries.

Fittingly themed “It’s a Store Brands World,” the show will also feature 10 national pavilions including this year’s newest addition – the Viva Latino Pavilion, showcasing store brands that reflect Latino and Hispanic traditions, tastes and preferences, as well as products with Spanish and bilingual packaging and products that can cross ethnic lines to appeal to mainstream shoppers. A special seminar session will also be dedicated the latest Latino market research and product trends.

“When you’re dealing with demographics that show the largest and fastest growing part of the American population is Spanish speaking, we want to make sure retailers understand there is a store brands component that is possible,” said Brian Sharoff, president of PLMA.

To learn more about other new products, PLMA’s popular New Product Expo and Idea Supermarket -- featuring new retail products and packaging concepts from 60 different markets around the world -- will once again serve as an innovation beacon.

Keynote Presentations
Kicking off this year’s program on Monday Nov. 14 is keynote speaker Douglas Merrill, former chief information officer and vice president of engineering for Google Inc. Merrill, who worked for Google from 2003 until 2008, will discuss how internet, mobile and social media are putting ever more information and power into shopper’s hands and how shopping behavior -- and the retail marketplace -- is changing as a result. Merrill is currently President of EMI Music's digital unit.

Douglas Merrill

“One of the things we try to do at the show is make the audience aware that things change,” Sharoff said. “Especially in store brands you must be prepared for the changing consumer, the changing retail market, the changing economy, and so on. One way to approach that is to look at social media and digital technology. With the Google keynote we hope to wake everybody’s mind up to how the Internet and smart phones are altering basic shopping habits.”

At Tuesday morning’s PLMA Live! breakfast, Harry Balzer, chief industry analyst of NPD Group, will highlight new and emerging food and beverage trends and their impact on store brands. The breakfast program and presentation will also be streamed on PLMA Live! for viewing in real time or post event.

Sunday Seminars

Ned Dunn

The first day of the event from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. features four seminars and workshops. The first, “How Consumers Make Decisions,” moderated by Ned Dunn, former president of Harris Teeter, will unveil results of PLMA’s newest consumer study conducted by Buxton. Findings include that shoppers are open to persuasion between at home list-making and the checkout. In fact, in-store decision factors that persuade shoppers to make unplanned in-store purchases or brand selections bode well for store brands.

“We think that the Buxton study is very useful for retailers especially because it answers a couple of questions that have only vaguely been understood over the past 10 to 15 years, “ Sharoff said, noting that past research has been split on consumer behavior in the store, with half claiming shoppers are list driven and the other half saying shoppers are impulse driven. “The Buxton study clarifies that consumer behavior. It is particularly important for store bands because it turn out that one in four consumers buy what’s on their list, but 75 percent are looking, evaluating and making a decisions once they get to the store and are open to all kinds of persuasion.”

Once inside the store, shoppers become browsers, Sharoff noted. They walk through the store looking for items on their list but also pay attention to special displays, promotions, product sampling and demonstrations. Another key finding is that 60 percent of shoppers specify brands on their lists only “occasionally, rarely or never,” although half of those shoppers admit they frequently have a brand in mind even if it is not written down.

Additional Sunday seminars at the PLMA Show include:

• “Viva Latino: Taking Advantage of America's Big New Market,” featuring speaker Stephen Palacios, executive vice president of Cheskin Added Value;
• “Packaging for the Next Generation of Store Brands,” moderated by Jim George, director, Education Institute of Packaging Professionals, will explore what kinds of packaging store brands will need to realize continued growth; and 
• “New Directions for Drug Chains,” moderated by Christian Strong, president, Can-Am Care, will discuss how drug chains have re-invented themselves to compete in today’s marketplace, and how they are currently revamping their store brands programs.

Each year, more than 4,500 visitors attend the PLMA Show at Chicago’s Rosemont Convention Center, including buyers and executives from leading U.S. supermarkets, drug chains, mass merchandisers, wholesale clubs, convenience and specialty retailers, in addition to wholesalers, brokers, importers, exporters, and suppliers of ingredients, services, research and consulting firms.

Click here for more information about the 20111 PLMA Show and to register.

See below for more news from PLMA:

• PLMA Announces 2011 Salute to Excellence Winners
• List vs Impulse: Shopper's Open to Persuasion New Study Shows
• PLMA Announces New Viva Latino! Pavilion
• exGoogler Douglas Merrill to Keynote at PLMA Show

Read These Related Articles:

• PLMA Show 2009 Keynote Speakers Focus on Innovation

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